Re: [Learning Area] Knowledge box on MDN articles

[Will Bamberg]

On 14-04-16 9:00 AM, Jeremie Patonnier wrote:
> Hello everybody :)
>
> As part of the Learning Area project on MDN, following the whole glossary
> writing work (hint, you can
> help<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.mdc/wNvEoxJlMLs/ilQRx18z-fYJ>;),
> I wish to add a "knowledge box" on top of MDN articles.
>
> But what is a "knowledge box"? It's a box that tell the readers of the
> article what are the knowledge they should have in order to understand the
> content of the article.
>
> As an example, take a look at this article:
>
> -
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/HTML/Canvas/Drawing_DOM_objects_into_a_canvas
>
> So I have a few questions for you:
>
> - Do you think it's a good idea?

Yes, I think it's a very good idea. The SDK tutorials all do something
similar:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Tutorials/Add_a_Context_Menu_Item.

> - Is it helpful for beginners?
> - Do you have any suggestion on the wording? the look & feel and the
> location of the box?
> - Do you have any suggestion to improve such informative box?

From a design perspective I think we need to be careful to limit the
number of "note boxes" of this sort that appear in the articles,
especially at the top. Some of our articles have a big stack of them in
various different colours, and it looks really ugly.

> Thank you for your help :)

[Jeremie Patonnier]

Hi :)

I agree, that's why i ask the question and CC'd Holly Habstritt.

That said, many of the articles full of top note box are reference material
and I do not intent to add such a knowledge box on those pages without some
serious thinking with the UX guys.

But yes, this need to be handled carefully.

--
Jeremie
.............................
Web : http://jeremie.patonnier.net
Twitter : @JeremiePat <http://twitter.com/JeremiePat>

[Jeremie Patonnier]

Hello everybody :)

As part of the Learning Area project on MDN, following the whole glossary
writing work (hint, you can
help<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.mdc/wNvEoxJlMLs/ilQRx18z-fYJ>;),
I wish to add a "knowledge box" on top of MDN articles.

But what is a "knowledge box"? It's a box that tell the readers of the
article what are the knowledge they should have in order to understand the
content of the article.

As an example, take a look at this article:

-
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/HTML/Canvas/Drawing_DOM_objects_into_a_canvas

So I have a few questions for you:

- Do you think it's a good idea?

- Is it helpful for beginners?
- Do you have any suggestion on the wording? the look & feel and the
location of the box?

- Do you have any suggestion to improve such informative box?

Thank you for your help :)

[Will Bamberg]

Oh, I and I also thought that the example you linked to is a very
general statement of prerequisities: "To understand this article, it is
recommended to be comfortable with JavaScript, the Canvas API and the
DOM API. It's even better if you are also familiar with SVG."

That's two quite huge areas that I need to be "comfortable" with before
reading the article. The more specific the statement of prerequisites
can be, the more useful it is. But I appreciate that this isn't always easy!

On 14-04-16 9:23 AM, Jeremie Patonnier wrote:
> Hi :)
>
>
> 2014-04-16 18:25 GMT+02:00 Will Bamberg <wbam...@mozilla.com

> <mailto:wbam...@mozilla.com>>:

>
> On 14-04-16 9:00 AM, Jeremie Patonnier wrote:
>

> - Do you have any suggestion to improve such informative box?
>
>

> From a design perspective I think we need to be careful to limit
> the number of "note boxes" of this sort that appear in the
> articles, especially at the top. Some of our articles have a big
> stack of them in various different colours, and it looks really ugly.
>
>
> I agree, that's why i ask the question and CC'd Holly Habstritt.
>
> That said, many of the articles full of top note box are reference
> material and I do not intent to add such a knowledge box on those
> pages without some serious thinking with the UX guys.
>
> But yes, this need to be handled carefully.
>

> --
> Jeremie
> .............................
> Web : http://jeremie.patonnier.net <http://jeremie.patonnier.net/>
> Twitter : @JeremiePat <http://twitter.com/JeremiePat>